Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday told participants of a political youth camp about his father’s experiences during World War Two.
Putin was speaking at the Seliger youth camp, in Russia’s Tver Region.
“My father began to fight in the commandos behind enemy lines,” Putin said. “The group consisted of 28 people, four of them survived. He was saved because he got into the swamp and breathed through a reed.”
Putin’s father escaped a death for a second time while fighting during the defense of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg.
“There was a very heavy fighting, and he was wounded seriously,” Putin said, adding that a friend had dragged him to safety.
“If he hadn’t done it, my father probably would have died,” he went on.